GPM

From openSUSE

What it does?

It does the same as any mouse driver and more. It will read mouse events, moves and clicks, and give that information to applications. For instance you can copy and paste text from anywhere on the screen to command line by highlighting the text and pressing middle button. Useful if you want to skip typing of very long file names like openSUSE iso images, for instance.

It has many drivers included, so it will work with almost any mouse on the market.

Note 1: gpm can be started only by root user.

Reason: It is system service for all users, and as any other system resource only root has right to start or stop it.

Note 2: gpm needs parameters. it will not work without.

Reason: It can control more than 1 mouse, and you have to tell which of them you want to use.

The most important parameter is

gpm -k 

that will stop running mouse server. Don't laugh, before you start car, you should know where is the brake. When you miss some parameter and you can't see the mouse cursor on the screen, than you have to stop gpm, edit command line, and start it again.

To see list of mouse types that are supported with -t parameter

gpm -t help

Short help list

gpm -h

More about other parameters you can find in the gpm manual pages. Open console and type:

man gpm

Example 1: Starting explorer ps2 mouse connected to /dev/input/mice

gpm -m /dev/input/mice -t exps2

Example 2: Adjusting acceleration

gpm -m /dev/input/mice -t exps2 -d -a 3